


I Love You, I Love You (and all of your pieces)

by Abbie



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Intimacy, Light Angst, Love Confessions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-14
Updated: 2015-06-14
Packaged: 2018-04-04 11:02:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4135053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abbie/pseuds/Abbie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tommy struggles with words, but not with actions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Love You, I Love You (and all of your pieces)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for relevanttosomeone on Tumblr based on an OTP prompt.

 

Tommy lay on his side under the thin sheet, the weight of his body sinking heavily into the mattress of Felicity’s bed as he listened to the rain patter softly against her windows, distant thunder grumbling too quietly to overwhelm the deep, even rhythm of Felicity’s breathing.

She lay on her stomach inches away, her face turned against the pillow away from him, her hair a tangle of curls he couldn’t help but run his fingers through, once, twice. He stared as the dim light through the gauzy curtains filtered across the naked skin of her back, and he licked his lips,  _needing_  to touch her, even as her body warmed his in the hollow of linens they shared.

Sliding his palm up her shoulder, Tommy swept a stray tendril of hair to join the pile on the mattress, smoothing across to the nape of her neck, then down the soft contour of her spine. His hand came to rest in the small of her back, fingers splaying wide, covering the little dimples above her ass and the edge of the sheet.

He inhaled deeply, so full up of contentment it ached in a strangely pleasant throb in his chest. Mouth twitching in a tiny smile, he lifted his hand to trace his middle finger back up her spine, fingertip only just touching her soft skin. He counted each vertebrae that bumped under the pad of his finger, traced the angles of her shoulder blades, circled and connected each of her freckles and moles.

Leveraging his elbow beneath him, Tommy leaned in and pressed his open mouth to the biggest one in a kiss, letting his lips linger and breathing against her. A little curl of heat stirred in his gut, and with it the temptation to lick the salt of her skin, wake her with sucking, nipping kisses and wandering, coaxing hands.

But he stayed there and breathed her, pulled her into his lungs to pump through his heart and throughout his body, where he hoped to keep her forever.

Swallowing thickly, Tommy shut his eyes and turned his cheek to lie flat against Felicity’s back, her heartbeat a steady thump resounding through her ribcage.

Drawing a deep breath through his nose, he propped back up on his elbow, just taking in the sight of her in bed with him, beside him, bare and vulnerable and—he hoped—happy.

Happy like she made him happy.

Happy like he hadn’t been sure he would ever be again.

_Felicity_. Happiness.

She really was.

Catching his bottom lip between his teeth, Tommy set his fingers to idle patterns across the canvas of her back, his stomach tightening in flutters of anxiety.

It scared him a little, being this happy. What it meant. What it could be to lose.

Slowly, with great, careful deliberation, he tucked all but his index finger against his palm, set the fingertip at the bottom of her left shoulder blade, and began to move it in cursive loops across to the bottom edge of her right shoulder blade. Then he began in vertical block letters at the nape of her neck, writing large down the column of her backbone to end in the small of her back. Dragging his finger back up her skin, he began to trace in his own simple hand all over, covering every inch of warm, giving, supple flesh available to him in the words.

_I love you_

_I love you I love you_

_IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou_

_I love you_

It felt like a risk, a terrifyingly dangerous gamble. Even to etch the words against her back while she slept seemed an invitation for this moment—and every moment he wanted to have with her thereafter—to be snatched away, stolen, tarnished, gutted.

Such powerful words.

Powerful and unpredictable and maybe he was stupidly superstitious, maybe he was just damaged all the way down to his core, cracked up and shattered in his soul, but they were words that, whenever spoken out loud, came with such a high cost.

The last time he’d said them easily, his mother had been alive.

The first time he’d said them after she was gone had been to a tiny baby girl he hadn’t had the right to give them to.

The only time he’d said them without caring about the hooks strung through his heart with them, the world was falling down and it hadn’t been enough to keep him and Laurel from unraveling.

He was afraid to say them now, to Felicity, and being able to admit to the fear still wasn’t enough to overcome it.

But even as he couldn’t unknot his tongue to  _tell_  her, he could write it on her body over and over and hope that if he repeated it enough, the words would leave some invisible impression, sink through her skin and find their way to rest in her heart.

He still wanted her to  _know_.

Even if he could only be  _this_  brave because she was sleeping.

His fingertip stopped against the center of the small of her back, and Tommy blew out a shaky breath between his lips, settling his palm against her warmth again and rubbing circles along to the curve of her waist.

Leaning down once more, he sweetly kissed Felicity’s shoulder, heart racing absurdly, then settled to the mattress again with a sigh. Turning onto his back, he breathed in deep and closed his eyes, tuning in again to the quiet lullaby of rainfall and breathing.

Beside him, Felicity shifted against the sheets, rolling to face him. He turned his head and watched her as, eyes still closed, she scooted in close to him, one of her knees crooking across his legs, the smoothness of her thigh rubbing lazily against the coarse hair of his. Her arm crossed his stomach, pulling her in tight to his side, and Tommy lifted his arm so she could tuck her head against his chest, smiling and bending to kiss her hair.

She answered with a soft kiss over his heart and his skin electrified, breath stilling in his lungs as the press of her lips curled with a smile. She sighed, the rush of cool air tickling over his throat as she tipped her chin up, eyes still unopened, and breathed his name.

“I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> the OTP prompt in question:
> 
> Imagine person A lightly tracing “I love you” over and over again on person B’s back, assuming that person B is asleep. When person A is lying on their back, getting ready to sleep, person B moves closer and wraps their arms around person A, whispering softly, “I love you too.” Bonus if that’s the first time person A has ever declared their love for person B.


End file.
